Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HOP Vol XXL Special Number

1968 No 2- 141,(07922)

of recent years (in the states of the South American continent or, for instance, in the Kongo) have proved that international imperialism, taking advantage of the economic-weakness of these countries, has tried to handle them as the free field of their neo-oolonialistic endeavours, or at least to exert a decisive influence on the choice of these countries between the economic systems« The report of Section III of the V/orld Conference in Church and Society gives evidenoe of a sense of responsibility when it condemns these methods as utterly lacking justification*

Going beyond the recoiranendations of the experts, we should like to add, with the purpose of handling this question in the interests of coexistence, two further considerations to the report of Section III. First, the spirit in which the well-to-do countries, including the former colonial powers, exercise their responsibility for the underdeveloped peoples still carrying the burdens of their centuries' old state of oppression and exploitation, should not be that of calculating selfishness, neither that cf condescending almsgiving, but that ot the penitent Zacchaeus.

Secondly,the right way, worthy of the idea of coexistence, in which help is to be offered to the developing nations would be if the highly developed countries, having realized the plan of a general and total disarmament, spent the billions now used because of the armament race to manufacture the tools of mass murder on helping to raise the living standard of the underdeveloped peoples ard countries* Christian conscience should never cease to impress these two considerations on the government and nations,,

4) Inner and Outward Conditions of Disarmament and the Task of the Churches

The unarmed world is an ancient dream of mankind, Yfaenever poets and religious seers have envisaged the "Golden Age" of mankind, the absence of arms and devastating wars has always been an integral part cf their vision* This ancient yearning of mankind has always been motivated by the tragic experience of blood and tears caused by the uninterrupted series of aimed conflicts in the history of mankind.

The mounting horrors of modem warfare have given further stimuli to the endeavour to transfer the dream of an unarmed world to the negotiating tablet of statesmen* First the nqgotiations under the auspices of the League of Nations and then the exertions of the present generation of mankind show the intensification cf these efforts* One of the documents of these is the resolution adopted by the United Nations' Organization on the 20th of November, 1959, which proposed general and total disarmament as the goal towards which the nations of the earth are to strive*